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Go West Young Man
Harraka representing D4D, driving for McAnallyPaulie Harraka's life has been a bit of a whirlwind since 2007, when he first got involved with Bill McAnally Racing.
McAnally discovered Harraka during a NASCAR Drive for Diversity combine that year and the two have been together ever since.
Harraka, who is currently a sophomore at Duke University, began racing late models in 2007 for BMR and went on to win the track championship at All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., in 2008. With the late model season over that season, McAnally decided to run Harraka in the final three NASCAR K&N Pro Series West races. Harraka earned two top-10 finishes in three starts, including a pole in the final West race of the season.
"He's a heck of a driver and amazing kid," McAnally said. "In just his third start in a West car he started from the pole at All American and led a total of 40 laps. He finished sixth that day and at that point I knew we had something special in him and that he was ready for the next level."
Drive for Diversity underwent a restructuring for the 2010 season, with 10 of the participants running all under the same roof for Revolution Racing. Harraka, the 11th member, will remain part of the D4D initiative, but will continue to go to school at Duke University and race for BMR. McAnally is thrilled to remain involved in the NASCAR Drive For Diversity program in 2010 with Harraka, who has Syrian roots.
"I'm very blessed that NASCAR let us be a part of the Drive for Diversity program this year," McAnally said. "They've took a whole different avenue with that going with Revolution Racing. I thought that Paulie was going to have to pull out of the D4D program to stay with me or if he stayed with the program, he'd have to go race for Revolution. I'm just so glad that NASCAR let us stay with the program and we get to keep Paulie under our banner because we're going to harvest some fruit this year."
In 2009, Harraka competed as a rookie in West and won the rookie of the year award by winning twice in 13 starts. In the season finale at All American, Harraka won from the pole and led a total 149 of 150 laps. He finished the season with seven top-five, eight top-10 finishes and had an average finish of 7.4.
Last week, Harraka was honored at the third annual NASCAR Diversity Luncheon as the 2009 Drive for Diversity Participant of the Year. Harraka was honored not only for his on-track success, but his off-track contributions. He has worked with the NASCAR Foundation and Childhelp, a leading national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. During his acceptance speech, Harraka talked about how a visit to Childhelp Virginia really opened his eyes to the impact he can have, as a driver, on a child's life.
WATCH HARRAKA'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
"He's the whole package and so motivated and has so much energy," McAnally said. "He promotes himself well and he's very marketable and works hard at being creative and even helps me to do a better job with our sponsors."
Bill McAnally Racing is no stranger to developing top talent and sending them on to next level in the sport. Current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer drove for BMR in 2004. Nationwide Series driver Brian Ickler also competed for BMR in 2006-07. Other drivers that have carried the banner for BMR have been Sarah Fisher, Brendan Gaughan and Peyton Sellers.
"Paulie is right there and he's got it," McAnally said. "There's no doubt in my mind that he's going to get a shot at a national touring ride in NASCAR and I'm looking forward to working again with him this year."
Harraka takes his opportunity with BMR very serious. On the same day that Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was to celebrate his 1,000th game coaching at Duke on Feb. 13, Harraka was hitting the books hard and preparing for meetings for next week in California with McAnally at Toyota Racing Development.
"I've been very fortunate to be a part of Bill McAnally Racing," said Harraka, who is part of a three-car team in West with teammates Eric Holmes and Moses Smith. "I know he was totally taking a chance in me as I was relatively an unknown kid from New Jersey but here we are, four years later, about to start our fourth season together."
Harraka immediately excelled during his stint in late models in 2008 by winning 11 of 23 races at All American Speedway in 2008. Although Harraka cut his teeth by winning at Flemington (N.J.) Speedway in 1997, the 20-year-old undeclared major considers All American his hometown track.
"We haven't looked back since 2007 and 2009 was a real learning year," Harraka said. "We tried a bunch of stuff and kind of figured things out during the first half of the season. Then (crew chief) Duane Knorr and I really got on the same page after we finished third at Irwindale (Calif.)."
In the last five races of the 2009 season, Harraka won twice and earned three top-five finishes. He also finished fourth in the final series standings.
"We've got a lot of momentum going and it was great to close the season with a win," Harraka said. "We've built a new car over the winter and we're looking forward to starting the season at All American on March 27 with it."
Harraka, whose first victory for BMR in 2009 was at Colorado National Speedway, noted that having Knorr as his crew chief makes him that much more of a complete racer.
"We speak the same language and we actually raced against each other at BMR when I was running late models. It was somewhat of a no-brainer for Bill to put us together in 2009 and he's really learned what I need to get out of a racecar. We want to keep being better in 2010 and work to be better each time we take the track."
